TiVoPlex
By John Seal
September 19, 2005
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex! All times Pacific.
Tuesday 09/20/05
9pm Turner Classic Movies
Garbo (1985 SWE) : If your appetite for all things Garbo was whetted by TCM's recent eponymous documentary, here's the main course: a superb two-part feature produced for Swedish television with the full cooperation of MGM. Though covering much of the same ground as Kevin Brownlow's sterling effort, the Swedish Garbo includes some otherwise unavailable footage, including two 1920s advertising films starring a young Greta and a cornucopia of early MGM production stills. For those in need of yet more real-life Garbo, you'll have to pick up a copy of Warner's' new Ninotchka DVD, which features, as an extra, a long-forgotten 1967 BBC documentary hosted by Joan Crawford.
9:45pm Showtime
Manito(2002 USA): This noteworthy indie feature gets a surprising wide-screen airing on Showtime tonight. It's a realistic and downbeat drama about a close-knit working-class Latino family living in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Reformed bad boy Junior (charismatic Franky G) runs a small plastering business, whilst brother Manny (Leo Minaya) is scholarship-bound for upstate Syracuse University. Proud Junior throws a big going-away party for his sibling, but when the brothers' estranged father Oscar (Manuel Cabral) crashes the event, things get complicated, leading to unexpected and tragic events on a subway train. Shot on DV and blown up for a brief run on the festival circuit (indeed, the film won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2002), Manito is an impressive example of what a dedicated cast and crew can accomplish on an ultra-low budget (in this case, $25,000). It's yet to arrive on home video, so be sure to give it a look tonight. Also airs 9/21 at 12:45am and on Showtime 2 at 8:30am.
Wednesday 09/21/05
3:30am Turner Classic Movies
The Single Standard (1929 USA): A proto-feminist drama featuring Greta Garbo and Nils Asther as free spirits engaged in a shady love affair that nice folks frown upon, The Single Standard's title derives, of course, from the infamous double standard: that men can engage in extramarital flings with the loosest of floozies, whilst their wives must stay at home and bake cookies and meatloaf for their unfaithful spouses. Written by the great Adela Rogers St John, the film was the last of Garbo's silent features (not counting the silent/sound hybrid The Kiss, recommended in this space last week) but visually is one of her least interesting films; cinematographer Oliver Marsh apparently lacked the rapport with, or interest in, the star that DP William Daniels displayed in features such as Anna Christie, The Temptress, or Flesh and the Devil. Directed by Old John Robertson, The Single Standard is marred by a conservative copout ending, but it remains unavailable on DVD and is required viewing for all Garbo fans.
10:30am Sundance
Riot on Sunset Strip (1967 USA): This teensploitation flick airs semi-regularly on Flix, but it's popping up on Sundance this morning, raising hopes that it may be airing in wide screen. Long unavailable on home video, this hopelessly reactionary film features gravel-voiced Aldo Ray as a police commander trying to keep a lid on those smelly longhairs strung out on dope and raising hell on the Strip. Here's trouble, though; his own daughter (Mimsy Farmer) is donning love beads and face paint, and Dad must rethink his attitude towards the younger generation. The film features great music from The Standells and The Chocolate Watch Band, so even if this is the same old pan-and-scan print, it's worth a look to see Dave Aguilar and chums rip through Sitting There Standing, Don't Need Your Lovin', and more.
6pm Sundance
Peace One Day (2004 GB): Fast forward to 2004, and it's obvious that the peace movement hasn't made much progress since the heady days of 1967. This documentary takes a look at one British man's six-year quest to get the United Nations to sanction a global ceasefire for one single, solitary day in the year. Amazingly, director/star Jeremy Gilley's quixotic efforts actually bore fruit: his film is making its American premiere on, you guessed it, the UN International Day of Peace, a holiday not likely to be recognized any time soon by Bush, Blair, Putin, or any other of the several dozen warmongering demagogues running much of the world today. Still, it's an impressive accomplishment from a man who threw in the towel on an acting career in favor of trying to change the world.
Thursday 09/22/05
5:15am IFC
You See Me Laughin' (2002 USA): This excellent documentary about the long-neglected bluesmen of the Mississippi Delta returns, sadly, only two short weeks after the death of the great R. L. Burnside, one of the musicians featured in the film (We also lost the priceless Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but that's another sad story in itself). Dedicated to preserving recordings by the last of the Delta blues singers, Fat Possum Records has released excellent discs by Burnside, T-Model Ford, and Junior Kimbrough, amongst others, and the film looks at the white boys who run the label as well as the African-American men who earn a belated living from it. Don't let the presence of interview subject and motormouth Bono put you off from checking out this tribute to these incredible performers.
Friday 09/23/05
1:10am Showtime
Savage Sisters (1974 USA): Savage Sisters has been airing on a fairly regular basis, but there's not much else of note on the tube today, so we'll give it another shout-out. It's a thoroughly enjoyable action flick starring statuesque Gloria Hendry as a cop trying to track down bandits (perennial movie villains Sid Haig and Vic Diaz) who have double-crossed a buxom pair of righteous revolutionaries ( grindhouse favorite Cheri Caffaro and Rosanna Ortiz) and stolen dirty money from corrupt big-wig General Balthasar (Beast of the Yellow Night's Leopoldo Salcedo). One of many films produced in the Philippines by American International Pictures during the 1970s, Savage Sisters was directed by the legendary Eddie Romero and co-produced by frequent Romero collaborator and former teen idol John Ashley, who also features here as bad guy W. P. Billingsley. A typically colorful Les Baxter score adds a tinge of class to this guilty pleasure, which is airing in wide screen.
Saturday 09/24/05
4:30am Encore Mystery
Killer's Kiss (1955 USA): The first feature film from an up-and-coming young director named Stanley Kubrick, Killer's Kiss is an interesting but only partially successful film that now serves more as a footnote to the man's amazing career. Beautifully lensed by Kubrick himself, it's an awkward noir drama about a past-his-prime boxer (Jamie Smith, never to be seen again on the big screen) whose love affair with the gal across the way (Irene Kane, ditto) gets him in deep doo-doo with her old boyfriend Vince (Frank Silvera, who regularly played Mafiosos or Mexican banditos). Though the film predictably looks terrific, the acting leaves much to be desired and the screenplay seems, frankly, to have been an afterthought. Killer's Kiss barely qualifies as entertainment, but it does make for fascinating viewing when considered within the context of Kubrick's dazzling filmography.
5pm Turner Classic Movies
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek(1944 USA): For years I overlooked the films of Preston Sturges; they were too sophisticated for me when I was a blossoming movie lover of 12, and too mainstream for me when I was an oh-so-hip movie snob of 20. My loss, but I've since made up for the oversight and now appreciate what a unique artist Sturges was. His reputation as a Hollywood maverick was well-earned; his films offer savagely funny and frequently bittersweet (and occasionally bitter) insights into the shortcomings of American society circa World War II. The Miracle of Morgan's Creek lacks the madcap insouciance of The Palm Beach Story or the poignant commentary of Sullivan's Travels, but it remains a frequently hilarious tale of a war bride (Betty Hutton) who's uncertain about which soldier she actually ended up marrying on the eve of their shipping out for the front. A solid supporting cast, including William Demarest, Brian Donlevy, and Akim Tamiroff, make this comedy a must-see for fans of Golden Age Hollywood.
Sunday 09/25/05
7pm Fox Movie Channel
Mother, Jugs and Speed (1976 USA): Oh, how we eighth-graders laughed when this film came out. Well, perhaps we sniggered a bit. After all, how could a movie called Mother, Jugs, and Speed - featuring Raquel Welch as, heh heh, Jugs - get a wide release on the non-Pussycat circuit? Sadly, the film can't live up to its amazing and thoroughly un-PC title; it's a lazy comedy about ambulance drivers that tries to channel the anarchic spirit of M*A*S*H but fails abjectly. Nonetheless, it's airing wide-screen this evening, so that factor, plus the film's super, though generally jug-less, supporting cast (which includes Bill Cosby, Bruce Davison, Severn Darden, L. Q. Jones, Allen Garfield, and Harvey Keitel) make this one a must for admirers of bad-taste ‘70s humor. Bringing Out the Dead, this ain't.
7:45pm Showtime Edge
Hellboy (2004 USA): I may be mistaken, but I think this is the wide-screen American television premiere of this tongue in cheek superhero epic. You already know as much as you need to about this box office hit; I'll just add that of all the comic book films of recent years, this is the only one that I found truly entertaining.
9:30pm Sundance
Audition (1999 JAP): Ever-busy director Takashi Miike has a reputation for nastiness that seems somewhat undeserved. It's true that films such as Ichi the Killer and Happiness of the Katakuris come with a healthy serving of grue, but they also come with a side dish of black humor to undercut the impact of the blood and guts. Audition, on the other hand, truly IS a picture of deep and relentless darkness, and is all the better for it. Playing at first like a fairly straight drama, it features Ryo Ishibashi as Aoyama, a middle-aged widower in the market for a new wife. He thinks he's found the perfect woman in
Asami (Eihi Shiina), but soon finds her to be anything but. Audition is a bloody, misanthropic nightmare that is not for the faint of heart, and bachelors of all ages are advised to avoid it.
Monday 09/26/05
1:20am Sundance
Mad Dog and Glory (1993 USA): Robert De Niro began his transformation to comedy star in this enjoyable if minor effort about a cop (De Niro) who unwittingly becomes involved in the life of a local hood (Bill Murray) whose life he has inadvertently saved during a stick-up. Produced by Martin Scorsese, whose choice of director was Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer's John McNaughton, the film is an occasionally awkward blend of drama and humor, lightness and darkness, and the casting of Uma Thurman as the film's love interest must be considered a mistake. Nonetheless, Murray and De Niro make a good team, and Richard Price's screenplay provides them with plenty of fine material to work with.
8pm Showtime
Rikers High (2004 USA-FRA): The infamous Rikers Island is the nation's largest "correctional facility" and houses 2,000 juvenile inmates, providing many of them with an ongoing high school education. This Showtime original documentary takes a look at the lock-up's Island Academy and focuses on three inmates as they prepare to graduate. Can our heroes - a depressed would-be graphic artist, an aspiring rapper with ADD, and the class valedictorian - swim against the tide and beat recidivism? Tune in for the less-than-salutary results. Also airs at 11pm.
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